Tires & Rubber 2023 has started at EXPOCENTRE Fairgrounds
The 25th anniversary edition of the International Exhibition for Rubber Goods, Tires, Their Production, Raw Materials and Equipment – Tires & Rubber 2023 – has opened at EXPOCENTRE Fairgrounds.
This year, the show has significantly expanded its exhibition space and presents the main developments in the tire and rubber products manufacturing industry, as well as tire recycling and disposal solutions and technologies.
About 200 companies from Belarus, China, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Switzerland and Turkiye are exhibiting advanced machinery for the production of rubber products, finished products, raw and auxiliary materials, and much more.
Mikhail Yurin, Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, visited the show on its first day.
This year is the third time that the Tires and Rubber Forum is held as part of the conference programme. Its events are attended by representatives of industry companies and specialised universities, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, heads of the Association of Tire Manufacturers, the Elastomers and Tire Ecology associations, and other industry unions.
The conference programme opened with the Panel on the New Realities of the Tire Market. The discussion was organised by EXPOCENTRE AO and NIITEKHIM with the support of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The event was moderated by Leonid Freiman, Deputy Executive Director at the Russian Chemists Union.
The panel’s participants talked about what needed to be done to preserve the industry and independence in these products.
The discussion was opened by Anna Trofimova, Deputy Head at the Chemical, Perfume and Cosmetics Industry Division of the Department for the Chemical and Technological Industry and Bio-Engineering Technologies of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, who presented the real situation in the Russian tire market. She began her presentation with a summary of the 2022 results. “Tire production fell by 21% due to the shutdown of most foreign manufacturers. The drop in production was influenced by a shortage of foreign components, which had previously been imported from unfriendly countries. Export deliveries fell by 56% as exports were accounted for by those companies that left the market,” said the speaker.
Anna Trofimova highlighted the current situation, drawing the audience's attention to the fact that new manufacturers of rubber products were emerging and starting to manufacture solid rubber tires.
The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade together with the industry has carried out a number of activities, which resulted in the extension of measures for tires imported from China, zeroing out duties on imported components. The chemical industry received about 35 billion roubles, almost 30% of this amount was given to tire manufacturers.
The ministry is considering the creation of new types of tires, in particular for the aviation industry and large-size tires. Russian manufacturers are working on this. Those companies that have changed ownership have not been ignored. The ministry provides all kinds of support and is ready for dialogue both with individual companies and with the industry as a whole.
Diana Kudryashova, R&D Director at NIITEKHIM, spoke about the realities and prospects of import substitution of raw materials and which components were used for manufacturing products. According to her, tire and rubber production is the most material-intensive sub-industry of the chemical sector. All types of rubber are made in Russia, and these products are export-oriented.
The discussion then turned to import substitution of rubbers as an important part of SIBUR's strategy, and the current issues of technical regulation of tires and tire recycling.
At the end of the panel, the participants discussed a resolution containing specific proposals to the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to support the rubber industry.
Press Service, EXPOCENTRE AO